


"we wouldn't really part at all, would we?"

by bio_fluorescence



Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Camping, M/M, Mutual Pining, Sleeping Together, Snusmumriken | Snufkin Has Paws and a Tail, obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 22:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20571803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bio_fluorescence/pseuds/bio_fluorescence
Summary: after a late night by the seaside, moomin can hardly stand to say good bye. snufkin can hardly stand to say anything. neither can stand to be awake much longer.





	"we wouldn't really part at all, would we?"

It has been a long night out and it’s close to sunrise. The two of them stumble back from the beach through the forest joking and giggling and falling over each other. Its comfortable and safe feeling, warming up their bodies from the inside out like a cup of cocoa. They’re both wearing identical sleepy smiles. 

As they reach the edge of the forest, where trees thin out to make room for grass and the path becomes clearer and wider, Moomin reaches out to take Snufkin’s paws in his.

“Come up with me, Snufkin!” he pleads, fluffy white body blocking the sight of the small green tent that is the boy’s home. His eyes are big and watery in the moonlight, red-rimmed in sleepiness but bright blue in intensity. 

Snufkin stops in his tracks, eyes wide too, but suddenly frightened, like a startled deer. 

“Moomin, you know I can’t do that,” he says, sounding even toned and reasonable as always, but feeling a maelstrom inside, as always. “Go on, I’ll walk you to Moominhouse so you won’t be lonely.”

Moomin doesn’t let go of his paws. Rather he clutches them tighter, too tight for comfort. Snufkin doesn’t pull away, but his tail starts twitching in tiny curls of nervous energy. 

“It’s not that I’m lonely, Snufkin. Its that I miss you. It’s different!” He’s too tired to stop the whine from entering his voice, or to hinder his words from tumbling out like waves onto the slowly eroding shore of Snufkin’s boundaries. “I miss you so much, you can’t imagine!”

Snufkin can imagine, but he doesn’t know how to tell Moomin this. Indeed, he doesn’t know how to tell Moomin a great deal of things, though Moomin might believe otherwise. 

“And you never come to sleep beside me! You wont come up with me and you won’t even let me stay down here with you!” He finishes with a frustrated stamp, childishness winning over. His snout warms, his common sense catching up enough to give him a blush of embarrassment. 

Snufkin finally pulls his paws away, and adjusts his stance so he is not looking directly at the moonlight reflecting off Moomin’s fur. In pretense, he pulls out his mouth organ as if he’d play. 

The stars sparkle in expectation, but he makes no move to follow through on the initial action. Instead he speaks, slow and methodical, one point at a time:

“I miss you too, Moomin. But people can’t spend every moment together, no matter how much they care for each other.” He’s taking in the constellations above with apparent interest, his own ears and neck flushing but his cheeks remaining loyal. “And I do. Care for you very much.”

The paws holding the harmonica are trembling ever so slightly. If Moomin notices, he doesn’t comment. In any case, he’s too busy staring at Snufkin’s eyes, and his bittersweet smile, and the locks of hair falling over his face. 

“I can’t-“ Snufkin falters here, looking down, unable to take the unambiguous beauty of the stars anymore. “I can’t sleep beside you, Moomin.” He takes a step towards Moominhouse, and the bridge, and his tent.

Moomin won’t follow. He stands still, paws lying useless at his sides, staring at where Snufkin has just been. 

Snufkin pauses. “Moomin?”

His friend speaks quietly. “It’s not enough for me anymore. I really like our new arrangement for winter, but now I want that every time I sleep! I want to see your face when I fall asleep and be woken up by your smile every morning! and I want-!”

“Please, Moomin,” Snufkin’s heart feels full to overflowing and heavy in his chest. Every beat of it makes him sway, unsteady with fatigue and overwhelmed by emotion.

“You don’t want that?” Moomin asks, trying too late to assess Snufkin’s feelings.

Snufkin is also trying, too late, to assess his feelings. He doesn’t like sleeping in Moominhouse, but that has nothing to do with Moomin’s presence, just the presence of walls and roofs and stone going down to a cellar and below, permanent, unlike him in essence. “I don’t- I don’t want to sleep in Moominhouse,” he expresses, more hesitant than he likes to be.

Moomin’s expression of bleary hope falls. He’s left dejected and rejected, ears wilting like flowers in the cold. 

Snufkin hates to see Moomin look so sad, and hates that he feels guilty for hurting his friend. He should be able to assert his boundaries however he sees fit! But when you care for someone as much as he cares for Moomin, their needs begin to become almost as dear as your own. The pain of feeling trapped only a little greater than the pain of Moomin’s loneliness.

It’s too much to bear. He takes his hat off, his hair sticking up at odd angles from going under it wet after he’d bathed downriver that morning. Moomin looks up at the motion and is struck at the rare sight of his friend without his ever present hat. Snufkin turns to face him again, and takes his paws in his himself this time, asking:

“Would you sleep under the stars with me tonight, Moomin?”

A pink glow suffuses Moomin’s snout like ink spilled into milk. They both can’t look away from each other’s gaze, falling into each other’s eyes head over heels over head again. He squeezes Snufkin’s paws, more gently this time. “Oh please, Snufkin. I want that ever so much.”

“Then let’s go to my tent.” 

Snufkin leads the two of them to his campsite by the bridge. Moomin doesn’t spare a glance to Moominhouse, his attention devoted to watching Snufkin pull his bedroll out of his tent and unfold the canvas and shake out the blanket beside the logs he uses for a fire.

“Would you light the fire, Moomin? It’s a little cold to-night.”

Moomin jumps, blush never leaving. “Oh yes, Snufkin!”

The fire lit, they crawl onto the blanket together and pull up the loose sides to cover themselves. It’s a little snug, made for one Snufkin-sized person, so they lie close together, legs brushing, paws touching, and foreheads nearly pressed together. It might have still been a little cold but for their shared warmth. They both burn with happy blushes and beam bright shy smiles.

“Snufkin?”

“Yes, Moomin?” Snufkin’s hair brushes against Moomin’s fur. He blinks slowly, nearly asleep.

“Thank you for letting me stay with you. I know you don’t like it.”

“It’s not that I don’t like you here with me. In fact, I- like it quite a lot.”

Their paws find each other and they clasp them in equal measures. 

The two of them fall asleep together peacefully in the beginnings of an embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm watching tanoshii muumin ikka and its (clenches fist) Tenderness.  
this fic is inspired by the winter compromise in ep 34 the kite and little my and moomin falling asleep together after a late night with snufkin in ep 40 the secret fireworks (meaning that at some point snufkin decided to stay behind even though they were all very tired).


End file.
